By now you’ve no doubt heard the news that Zack Snyder has signed on to helm the upcoming Superman reboot, tentatively titled Superman: Man of Steel, and there has been a wide range of reactions to the news. Many longtime readers might imagine my initial reaction – after all, I’ve been a vocal critic of Snyder’s inability to grasp the art of adaptation, always tinkering with great stories to make them greater (and missing the mark.) Likewise, I’ve lately been rough on Christopher Nolan, arguing that his cold, clinical style and penchant for darker storylines and character arcs was an odd fit for the most colorful and inspirational of DC’s superheroes. So why is it that I’m so happy Snyder has been signed?
Marriage.
You see, I’ve been married a while, and with my wife almost twice as long as that – and I’ve learned a thing or two about what makes a successful marriage. The best couples always consist of people whose personalities complement each other perfectly: One makes up for what the other one lacks. For instance, my wife has a head for dates and bill paying, while I barely know what day of the week it is on any given day, let alone the date. Meanwhile, my wife hates to cook, while I enjoy making elaborate dishes. What we end up with is a household that is never late paying the bills and has a hot meal waiting for my wife every day when she gets home from work.
And in the world of big-budget cinema, I cannot think of a better pairing than Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder. Snyder’s an idea man, a visual master who can create elaborate tapestries of awesome out of a few actors and a green screen. No one can capture the look and feel of a comic book panel – nailing the emotional beat contained therein – like Snyder. And his action scenes … man, oh, man, his action scenes are incredible. But where Snyder fails is when it comes to story. He has a history of taking incredible comic book storylines and gutting them to tell the story he would prefer, ending up missing the power of what his films could have been.
Nolan, on the other hand, is a story-and-log man. He loves constructing cinematic puzzles in which each and every piece has a brilliant and individual function. This is the guy who refused to give Batman a grappling hook until his team could come up with a realistic way to make it work and be 100 percent logical. That’s who he is; he must understand the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of everything and know that it all serves the purpose of leading to a killer, mind-blowing ending. His failing is when it comes to imagination – he’s a guy who made a movie about dreams in which everyone’s dreams looked exactly the same. (Ahem, like James Bond movies.)
So we have a director with untold reserves of imagination, being overseen by a producer who will make sure every element of the story exists to tell a fully developed, incredible tale that will completely pay off in the end. Two geniuses each placed with someone who completes them. My question isn’t whether or not this is the best producer/director pairing of the modern age, but rather: How many movies can we sign these two up to make together?
As it turns out, Batman and Superman is NOT the best team-up the brain-trust at Warner Bros. could think up. Bring on the Man of Steel.
